Bethel Focus                                                                                      A Magazine for Alumni & Friends of Bethel University

Alumni in the News

Bethel Program Leads to Job with Minnesota Lynx

by Amanda Wanke '99

Alisha Deneen '98, head athletic trainer for the WNBA's Minnesota Lynx, always loved sports. But the road from the Bethel College athletic training program to the top job with the state's first woman's professional basketball team was paved with patience and hard work. Deneen's journey is an inspiring example of how God can use families, gifts, and interests to lead someone to just the right destination. Deneen grew up in Cambridge, Minn., and is the oldest of three girls. Her parents, Roger '74 and Melissa '73, met at Bethel, and following in their footsteps wasn't a difficult decision. "I always knew I was going to go here," Deneen says. "I went to basketball camps here. I never even applied anywhere else. I always just fit [at Bethel]." (Deneen's sisters Brooke '00 and Hannah '04 subsequently followed in her footsteps to also attend Bethel.)

When she was young, Deneen enjoyed math and science, and the medical field intrigued her, but she was confident she didn't want to be a doctor. Since she'd always loved sports, athletic training seemed right for her. A visit with Neal Dutton, director of athletic training at Bethel, during her senior year of high school confirmed her decision.

The process to become a certified athletic trainer isn't easy; 1,500 hours of hands-on experience are required. Deneen accumulated these hours by serving as the student athletic trainer for Bethel's football, women's tennis, men's soccer, and women's basketball teams. Despite the commitment of time, Deneen admits that working with athletes was one of the favorite parts of her time at Bethel. "Working at a smaller school, I had a lot of responsibility as an athletic trainer. The certified athletic trainers did a good job of overseeing everything but let us do a lot of hands-on work with the athletes," Deneen explains. "The experience made me a lot more comfortable when I began working in the field."

After graduation, Deneen's path to her job with the Lynx took patience and perseverance.

She spent two and a half years at Northwestern College, St. Paul, as women's athletic trainer, women's basketball coach, and instructor. In addition to that job, she worked with the Minnesota Timberwolves youth basketball camps, interned for three years with the Lynx, and assisted on the WNBA All-Star tour. Her work with professional athletes wasn't high paying or glamorous—Deneen helped make Gatorade, clean and stock the training room, and assist with other basic needs. But it paid off when in the January of 2002 she was asked to return to the Lynx as head athletic trainer. During the Lynx season, which runs from May through Labor Day, Deneen travels with the team and works at all practices and games. "My summer is spent in arenas, airports, and hotels," she says. She prepares players for practices and games by taping, stretching, and taking care of any aches and pains, and always has to be prepared in case a player is injured during a game or practice. More often than not, she is also working with a player who is injured or recovering; Deneen has to decide what the player can do and implement a rehabilitation and strengthening program. In trying to keep the medial staff up-to-date on her players' conditions, Deneen must keep in touch with team doctors, nurses, the nutritionist, and physical therapist to make sure everyone is aware of the athlete's condition.

In the off-season, she helps players through injury rehabilitation; keeps in touch with others throughout the world to ensure that they're working on their weight programs and off-season goals; researches new training methods; and plans her program for the next year. In addition, she is on call for the Institute for Athletic Medicine, which uses her as a trainer at high school and college events in the Twin Cities. She also does out-of-competition drug-testing for Olympic athletes.

What does Deneen likes best about her job? "People. You meet so many different people from so many different backgrounds," she said. "I have a player from Russia and one from Australia—they come from everywhere, from small-town Iowa to inner-city Dallas. Traveling, you meet people on the plane, at the arena, and everywhere you go. And the people I work with in the [Lynx] office are great." Deneen's career has opened new and unexpected ways for her to share her Christian faith. She was approached by a co-worker in the Lynx sales department about speaking at Christian basketball clinics. The clinics, aimed at junior high and elementary school students, combine basketball training with the opportunity for Deneen and the team's chaplain to share their faith in what Deneen likes to call a "chalk talk."

"You never know where God is going to use you," she says. "My hope is that people will see Christ in me by the way I act and the things I say."

One of the biggest challenges of her job has been the team's busy schedule. It's frustrating not to always be able to go to church on Sundays, she says. But she's thankful for friends and family who keep her on track spiritually and encourage her foundation in Christ.

"Alisha embodies what we hope for all of our graduates," says Neal Dutton, director of athletic training at Bethel. "She is an excellent athletic trainer, with great people skills and a caring attitude. She has an incredible work ethic and is a servant leader. And most importantly, she is a true disciple of Jesus Christ who lets His light shine through her."

Being diplomatic: Bohne sees the world, serves God and country

by Stephen Hunt '85
Some people are born to roam, and some are inclined to the hearth. Brent Bohne '84 is a roamer. Bohne has traveled or worked in over 60 nations since visiting Brazil as a 15-year-old in 1976. Bohne's position in the United States Foreign Service has afforded opportunities few people from Minnesota ever know. Diplomacy is not your typical 9-5 job, but one that offers free airfare and other perks such as meeting former presidents, Prince Charles, and the Pope. "If you like to travel," says Bohne, "I can't imagine too many better jobs."

The journey to the Foreign Service was anything but clear when Bohne entered Bethel in 1979. He came with deeply rooted college connections, but an undecided vocation. His mother Marilyn '68, and older siblings Lauri '75, Bruce '78, and Brian '79 were pursuing successful careers when Brent started his freshman year. Quentin Bohne, Brent's father, was chairman of the math and science departments at Bethel until he died in a drowning accident in 1966.

After coming to Bethel, Bohne spent the next three years searching for his niche. He spent his junior year studying at the University of Heidelberg but entered his senior year with no idea of how he would implement a German major in the "real world." Besides a zeal for travel and foreign language, Bohne's occupational itinerary was still unclear. Mission work was a possibility, but the doors did not seem to be opening in the right places.

A light went on in the fall semester of 1983, however. Bohne took World Politics from John Lawyer, Bethel political science professor, and knew he had found his calling; some type of international government work was to be his life pursuit. Lawyer's subject expertise and first-hand experiences brought relevancy to Bohne's experiences abroad. "John Lawyer and the other political science professors knew their subject matter so well and had such good courses; they challenged me to think about how and why things happened in the world," says Bohne.

Current and former Bethel professors such as G.W. Carlson, Rune Engebretsen, Art Lewis, and Al Glenn helped give vocational vision and spiritual grounding to Bohne. "Bethel provided a real solid building block for me. I entered as a kid with some broad interests and Bethel helped channel those ideas into realistic plans," he said.

Bohne began Foreign Service training in 1985 and served in various temporary posts until 1987 when he received his first permanent assignment as Deputy Chief of Security for the U.S. Embassy in Nairobi, Kenya. There he met his wife Primrose who was employed at the embassy. After a serious accident idled his supervisor, Bohne was suddenly thrust into the position of Regional Security Officer (RSO). The RSO provides ambassadorial protection, counter-intelligence, counter-terrorism, commands the Marine guards, and works as a liaison with the local government's police and security forces.

After three years in Kenya, he received a new post in Bangui, Central African Republic, where he worked as both the RSO and the General Service Officer (GSO) for the embassy. (GSOs are responsible for embassy maintenance, motorpool, housing, etc.) This two-year assignment was followed by administrative officer positions in Brazzaville, Congo, and Port-au-Prince, Haiti. Bohne again served as the GSO in the large U.S. Consulate General in Monterrey, Mexico, from 1997-1999.

Bohne's proficiency in four foreign languages opened the doors for a unique domestic opportunity in 1999. He was accepted for a post in the Nuclear Risk Reduction Center (NRRC), a vital State Department agency created during the Cold War to monitor the nuclear arsenals of the Soviet Union and its satellite republics. Bohne began his post in the NRRC office upon completion of a one-year Russian language training program in 2000, his fifth language.

The stunning shift from superpower isolation to open cordiality between former enemies has fascinated Bohne as he closely witnessed the demise of Cold War tensions. He recounts the day in the Central African Republic when the Soviet Union collapsed: "We lived close to the Soviet embassy, and one morning when I drove by, the sickle and hammer flag had been replaced with the tri-colored flag of Russia. I remember how emotionally moved and stunned I was to see that flag come down. A week later we had a party with the Russians, and they were as confused as we were."

Several years after the fall of the Soviet Union, Bohne stayed in the home of a former Soviet Red Army colonel in Russia during his language training. "I would have never imagined myself sitting and talking casually about world events with a former Soviet army officer when I entered the diplomatic service 15 years earlier," says Bohne. "I remember studying communism with G.W. Carlson and the fear and paranoia that existed. But the world has changed, and we now have new threats to world peace."

Of course, that new threat is terrorism. Containing and dismantling Al-Qaida has become the new obsession for the State Department and other government agencies. Terrorism has hit home for Bohne ever since he lost two close friends in the embassy bombing in Kenya. "When I think of Osama bin Laden, I think of two good friends who were killed," he says, "When you put a name and a face in the place of casualty statistics it makes it very close to the heart."

Bohne recently left the NRRC and is currently serving in a Washington policy-level position as Special Assistant to the State Department's Procurement Executive. His newest assignment in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, a former Soviet-bloc republic, will begin in the summer of 2003. Bohne will serve as the Counselor for Administrative Affairs where he will be responsible for the embassy's communications, budget, general services, and personnel sections.

A committed supporter of missionary work, Bohne has had many opportunities to assist missionaries through his embassy connections and contacts, "Being overseas permitted us the rare opportunity of living right in many missions fields, often ministering to and being ministered to by countless missionaries whom we count as our friends," he said. "We still support many families who we met in the Congo and elsewhere. I know God has put us in unique places for His purposes."

Stephen Hunt '85 is a freelance writer and teacher from St. Paul.